Beyond Pay?

An anonymous reader asks: "I was wondering if Slashdot readers have encountered harassment in the workplace, and how they have dealt with it. In particular, when working for technology-based companies. Examples of this include the company forcing employees to put in extra (unpaid) hours, with the implicit/explicit threat of loosing the job if they don't, to actual personal harassment in the work place by management staff. My experience is that even in cases where the employee is completely right, it is impossible for her to win the case, given current employment law."

Comments

Not harassment

[Arkham]

Telling you to work overtime or you'll be fired is not harassment, but it could be a violation of some labor laws (IANAL) depending on the nature of the job and the way you're paid. For example, if you're paid hourly, then they have to pay you for overtime. If you're on salary, you may or may not be entitled to paid overtime. Most states now are right-to-work states, which means that they can fire you for no reason, and you can quit for no reason, and nobody can do anything about it.

Actual harassment, such as sexual harassment, physical intimidation, etc., is a whole other can of worms. You can and should fight this sort of thing, if for no other reason than to ger the person doing it fired. You can easily find a lawyer who will represent you for a percentage of the settlement. Just be prepared to find a new job when it's over.

Paper trail!

[n1ywb]

Whatever you decided to do, you won't have a leg to stand on without a solid paper trail. So get creative with ways to get your boss to put stuff in writing. It's your only chance of having any kind of case.

lawyer up

[falsification]

Time for you to lawyer up.

"actual personal harassment"

If you are at the receiving end, take the following steps:

1. Call a lawyer. If you don't know one, go to Google and search for "state bar association" +nameofyourstate. They will have a lawyer referral service. This is a great way to get a lawyer.
2. If you can't find a lawyer that way, look through the yellow pages or some other place.
3. The first thing you should ask the lawyer is how much he charges for an "initial consultation." This might be free. It should not be exorbitant.
4. By talking to a lawyer you will gain a good picture of whether you have a case.
5. If you have a case and wish to proceed, you should call at least two lawyers before choosing one of them.

You have legal rights. You should at least find out what they are.

Re:In many States there is little you can do

[themassiah]

I have personal experience with this. What you do is you try to go into the building to get your things. When they refuse to let you in, you tell them that you're going to the police station and will bring an armed escort with you. If they still don't let you in, go to the nearest police station and tell them that your previous employer has been given multiple attempts to return property of yours and that you want an escort into the buidling to recover your property. Contrary to your belief they will probably help you.

Re:IASNAL

[Aaron Denney]

You can't tape them saying that stuff (since it breaks wiretapping laws, I believe)

Depends on the state. The sane ones allow taping so long as at least one person in the conversation (i.e. you) consent. Others do not. See Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Re:Beware inertia and fear

[theMerovingian]

FYI, you should make 3.5 times your annual salary in a body business (engineering, consulting, or the equivalent), to be a profitable employee. If you are currently bringing in a higher multiple, then you should get a raise. A lower multiple, and you are probably just out of luck.

Make sure you take credit for what you do, and people know your value to the organization.

Re:What constitutes harrassment?

[DaHat]

Technically yes, legally... no.

This morning when I had McDonalds for breakfast, I discriminated against the Egg McMuffin by having a Sausage Egg McMuffin, just as I discriminated against Burger King by going to Mcdonalds.

Funny thing about harassment and discrimination is that unless it breaks the law, you're safe.

Example: In my state (South Dakota) I had some major problems with a professor (who I am happy to say I eventually helped to get removed) and claimed he was harassing me as well as making it very difficult for me to go to his class, unfortunately, the university and the law enforcement could do little because I am not a member of a protected class.

White privilege my ass! The 'American White Male Aged 18-24' is the most discriminated against class in the US currently, and because I am one of those, nor part of a religion which is favored, they couldn't do a thing about it.

Note: If I'm not mistake, this harassment was classified as 'unprofessionalism' as they were building a case to get rid of him.

Re:Interview questions.

[cr0sh]

What if he was gay, and they didn't hire him because of that? AFAIK, EOE laws say nothing about sexual orientation - only about "sex" (that is, you can't discriminate based on male or female gender). If you know differently, please let me know!

What to do in California

[ezraekman]

I was wondering if Slashdot readers have encountered harassment in the workplace, and how they have dealt with it. In particular, when working for technology-based companies. Examples of this include the company forcing employees to put in extra (unpaid) hours, with the implicit/explicit threat of loosing the job if they don't, to actual personal harassment in the work place by management staff. My experience is that even in cases where the employee is completely right, it is impossible for her to win the case, given current employment law.

Okay, since you didn't specify where you are, I'm going to give you advice based on California law. As always, you should consult a lawyer. Fortunately, California has one available to you for free. It's called the Commission for Labor Standards Enforcement. Their job is to assist employees who are getting screwed by their employers. They will give you: advise, handouts that explain the laws that affect you, and assistance in filing a claim. In San Francisco, they're at 455 Golden Gate, across from the federal building, on the 8th floor. You can also call them at (415) 703-5300... but don't bother if you're outside of California. Your state probably has something similar; check it out.

Requiring you to work overtime is, more or less, legal. Threatening to fire you if you don't work the way they want you to... well, sorry Bub, it's at-will employment, unless you've got a contract that states otherwise. Threatening to fire you is not harassment, unless it degenerates to insults or something similar. From their point of view, you're not doing what the job "requires". Think of it this way: if you were late repeatedly, they'd be well within their rights to threaten to fire you if you didn't shape up, right? There is some good news, though:

Overtime
If you are salaried (exempt from eligibility for overtime), they don't have to pay anything extra over your normal salary. If you're hourly (non-exempt from eligibility for overtime), they do. I'll get into that in more detail shortly. As far as overtime is concerned, you're owed normal pay for the first 8 hours worked in a single day, 1.5 times normal pay for between 8 and 12 hours in a single day, and 2 times normal pay for anything above 12 hours in a single day. However, I believe there is some legislation in there that if the total hours worked in a week is less than 40, you are no longer eligible for overtime. This may vary from industry to industry (for example, the entertainment industry has different rules from the food industry, which has different rules from... you get the picture. Check with the labor Commission to find out the rules regarding overtime in your industry. But if it's overtime beyond 40 hours in a week, you shouldn't need to worry about that.

Are you salaried? Legally?
There are a bunch of rules regarding who is salaried and who is not. Again, check with the Labor Commission for specifics, but here's the short version: If you aren't in a managerial or supervisory position (i.e. bossing anyone else around), you're not salaried. There are other requirements, such as pay rate, etc... but if you aren't a boss, they have to pay you hourly, unless you're making a bunch ($45/hour plus, I think) of money. Regardless of what your employer says you are or are not, you aren't legally salaried unless you meet those requirements. Let's assume that you aren't legally salaried for now. If this is the case, and they require you to work, they have to pay you. The law is worded like this: If an employer "requires or allows" an employee to work, they must compensate them for it. This means that you can go ahead and work the overtime, track it, and get them for it later.

Filing a claim
Well, here's some more good news. In my experience, the burden of proof is on the employer to prove that you didn't work the hours in question, rather than you to prove that you did. That doe

Re:Interview questions.

[catfood]

Asking if a person is married is most likely legal in fact I know that it is required for many retirement plans.

But that comes after you are hired. You can't ask (in the US) a job candidate if they are married (because it might indicate an intent to discriminate on gender), nor their age, religion, racial/ethnic background, stuff like that. A lot of times it's pretty obvious--such as when the candidate is wearing a wedding band--and of course the candidate frequently brings these issues up, such as one fellow I interviewed who talked about the technical work he did on his church's missionary project.

If (for example) you're interviewing a woman, asking whether she is married could be construed as a sideways attempt to find out whether she plans to have children and thus might want to take maternity leave in the future... which, despite the equal protection of the Family Leave Act, still comes off as a question that is discriminatory against women. So it's a bad thing to ask even if the law doesn't specifically prohibit it.

Once the hiring decision is made and communicated to the candidate, sure, you can ask all sorts of personal questions for non-hiring decisions. Because then you are largely out of the realm of discrimination law unless work conditions change.